Rebellion
by DarkPaladin000
Summary: Percy Jackson lives in Olympus, a tiny country riddled with food shortages, corruption, and disease ruled by their king, Ares. One day though, he is suddenly attacked by a monster in school, and is subsequently conscripted for military service. He makes some friends there, and they begin uncovering the truth of the history of their government and the country. Alternate universe.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: So, this is my first attempt at creating an alternate universe fanfic. As a disclaimer, I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians, or anything else that belongs to someone else.**

The first lesson that you had to learn was to not ask questions.

Yes, questions just usually landed you into trouble. Like asking how mankind had been forced into a small country by the name of Olympus, ruled by a king named Ares.

Then again, the nation had been named Olympus for some time, but for some reason, the authorities (read, the government) wanted to change the name for some reason but hadn't gotten around to doing it. So, Ares, King of Olympus was now Ares, King of A Country Yet to Be Named. However, considering the fact that they never _did_ get around to changing its name, it will be referred to as Olympus.

And yes, the king's name was Ares. Woe unto those who mistake it for Aries, the astrology sign. Percy Jackson remembered his mother saying that once, some poor senator had accidentally called him Aries in a speech, and after that Ares had glared at the guy like he wanted to tear his arms out, but obviously wasn't going to do that on national television.

A few days later, that same senator went 'missing.'

Yeah, best not to make that mistake.

The second lesson that you had to learn was to learn what you said. Often, a wrong word here and there could've landed you in prison, or worse. That had always been a problem with Percy, as he just had trouble conforming and usually spouted whatever he wanted when he was angry.

I suppose an introduction to this Percy Jackson character is needed here. Percy was a twelve-year old boy born in a poor family in a small town located near the border of the country.

Now, when I said poor, I didn't mean starving poor, just the kind of poor that left only enough for the basic essentials of life. Percy lived with his mother (and only his mother, which wasn't uncommon in Olympus. 76.5% of children grow up in single-parent households for various reasons.) in a small, dingy apartment in one of the poorer areas of the town.

There was a lamp but no lampshade. The food always had to be rationed out so that it didn't run out before the month ended. The only reason they could afford a television was because the government had subsidized it.

Yes, it was odd that a government that wouldn't bother feeding its citizens properly would enforce subsidies to give them televisions, but that was mainly so that people could watch the mandated government programs. Not to mention that Percy heard rumors that they were bugged. He didn't know if it was true, but he had stopped doing weird stuff like picking his nose in front of the television.

Today though, was a normal day and didn't have any special programs. Percy's mother had wanted to be a novelist, or a writer, but unfortunately under the regime that was only possible if she wanted to be a member of the government's propaganda machine or if she wanted to be executed.

Instead, she rode on her cycle every day for two hours to reach her shop where she sold candy. Yes, it took her two hours since the shop had to be located in a part of town where there were people who could afford to buy candy.

Percy though, had never seen his mother complain, even though he knew she hadn't had an easy life. Her own parents had died to the pox epidemic when she was five, and she had been raised by an uncle who didn't care much for her. She had been forced to drop out of a special school where she was honing her talents as a writer to take care of him when he got sick. She wasn't allowed back into her program, and was left with no family, no diploma, and no money.

Still, she didn't complain. Percy had never seen her say an unkind word to anyone, not to him, or even to the tax collector, Gabe Ugliano, whom Percy nicknamed Smelly Gabe.

It was time for Percy to head out to school.

Not that he was getting much of an education anyway. The combined weight of all of his textbooks was less than his lunch's. He only had two real subjects, English and Math.

History had been scrapped away years ago, and before that had probably been nothing but a propaganda instrument for the government back then. Science had been there, but if you showed a talent for it in the earlier grades you were taken away from normal school and sent for private training elsewhere to supply the State's army of doctors, scientists, engineers, nurses, and more based on your talent. They didn't teach science after third grade.

If you showed promise at English, you would be taken to a different school where you would most probably end up as a clerk which the government still needed hordes of as only 1.78% of households had access to the Internet, or if you were good, as a journalist. His mother had been in that program before she had been forced to drop out.

If you didn't show any promise, much like Percy did, who had been held back two grades mainly due to his dyslexia and ADHD, you mainly just trudged through the five years of compulsory education that the government mandated. In reality though, if you weren't selected somewhere after third grade, your chances of reaching anywhere were low

If you didn't get anywhere after school, or your parents didn't have a plan for you, you would either be enrolled in the military, which would probably lower your life span, or forced to work in the factories, which would definitely lower your life span.

Most government pictures of factories showed smiling, healthy, and happy workers, but the truth was that they lived in horrible conditions, often forced to work with toxic substances using their bare hands. The average life span of a factory worker was twenty-four years.

Percy shuddered. His mom had tried showing the school authorities that Percy could help her out at her shop, but the thing was that it didn't get much business and she was having trouble showing that he would be necessary.

Whatever, Percy thought. The only thing was that he knew his mom couldn't bear to be away from him.

And so, Percy tried his best to sit through his classes, hoping that he might still somehow manage to scrape by and land a lower-level government position. That wasn't easy as he was in 'that' class, a euphemism people used to describe the class that the students with problems were placed into.

Was Percy a problematic kid? Perhaps. One thing he was glad about was that corporal punishment was banned in school, because if it hadn't been he would've been beaten up so many times… well, he liked to not think about that.

But the thing was that Percy wasn't really good at English, with the letters leaping off the pages and dancing around, and even worse at Math.

It didn't help that his Math teacher was someone named Mrs. Dodds, wad perhaps the meanest teacher that Percy had ever met. She had assumed, since the moment that she had come to class in the middle of the school year suddenly, that Percy was demon scum and didn't waste a moment to make his life miserable. Though the school lasted for only four hours now, she often forced him to stay for eight hours.

There was some discussion among the students before Math class. Apparently, the principal and the security guards were absent today. Mrs. Dodds seemed to be in a good mood for some reason, but the class was as boring as usual with her glaring at Percy every now and then.

Then, in the middle of the lesson, the lights went out. They hadn't had a power outage in almost six months, before Mrs. Dodds joined, and naturally when the lights went out the students began making ghost noises, which was lame since there was some sort of light from the windows anyway.

Mrs. Dodds somehow managed to glare at them even in the dim light and forced them to be quiet. She then said, "The lights are out… meaning the security cameras no longer work… months waiting."

Percy could still sort of see, and what happened shocked him. Mrs. Dodds seemed to transform, and grew leathery… wings? Her hands outstretched to become sharper, she had talons, and immediately leapt on the desk of one of the students.

There was a scream and then silence.

Suddenly though, the door burst open and several members of what looked like the Internal Affairs Squad, Olympus's version of the Gestapo, walked in carrying charged weapons.

The glow illuminated Mrs. Dodds and more screams followed, and there were more shrieks across the room. Mrs. Dodds glared at the newcomers, and then suddenly lunged at Percy.

Percy wasn't sure what to do, but he tried swatting the claw away but it still hit him with enough force to smack him into a wall and knock him out cold. He had the vague notion of more screams, but this time from Mrs. Dodds.

Percy woke up groggily. He had a vague notion that someone was screaming in his ear and shaking him.

"Wake up!" a gruff voice said.

Percy stared at the person who was shaking him. He was dressed up in the normal uniform of the Internal Affairs Squad, a blue tailored uniform with a baton on the left side which could attack using up to 450,000 volts as well as some other strange weapon that Percy couldn't remember seeing. It somehow seemed to glow in the dark, and was a small dagger.

"What did you see?" he asked this time. He was wearing a mask usually reserved for those working in hazardous areas, so Percy couldn't see his face.

Percy bolted right up. "The teacher. She turned into a monster…"

The guy looked at someone else. Percy took in the rest of the room, there was something splattered everywhere which Percy realized with a chill was blood, and all of the chairs were empty. It looked like a hurricane had passed through the room.

There was only one other officer currently in the room, and he (or she, Percy didn't want to be sexist even in his head) was taking photographs of the room.

"The Mist isn't working on this one," the guy talking to Percy was saying. Percy couldn't really hear what the guy was saying through his mask, so he was wondering what he was talking about.

The other one stopped taking photos and said, "Take him to the colonel then."

"Can you walk?"

"Yeah," Percy said before he tried to get up. His head was swimming and the memory of Mrs. Dodds kept coming in his head.

"Come with me then."

Percy followed the guy, and for the first time noticed the faint _whir-whir_ of the police cars outside. There weren't more people in the hallways except for the other officers. Percy was led to a room that was the principal's office, but when they went inside all he saw was a man who was wearing an Internal Affairs Squad uniform but without the biohazard mask.

The first thing that Percy thought when he looked at him was 'I do not want to get this guy mad.' The man was almost as scary as Ares, whom Percy had only seen on television but was aware of how scary he was. The officer who had brought Percy explained things quietly to the colonel, who began staring at Percy like he was some sort of huge inconvenience to him. The colonel dismissed the officer and looked at Percy like he was pond scum, something that Percy wasn't unused to.

The colonel grunted and said, "You're causing me a lot of trouble boy."

Percy wasn't sure what to say, considering the fact that his Math teacher had just turned into a monster and tried to kill him he wasn't sure how _he_ was the problem. "I'm sorry sir," Percy muttered.

The colonel glared at him. "Well then, I'll explain only a few things to you boy, whatever you saw here, at this school, and whatever happened in that classroom is a top-level government secret. If you even breathe a word of this to an outsider, you will be neutered, and so will your mother."

Percy gulped. "Understood, sir."

The colonel continued, "From now on, your elementary education is over. You are going to be enlisted in the military now. We will set up an explanation for your mother. And if anyone asks, remember that the official story is that there was a poisonous gas leak here."

Gas leak? Percy thought. Was that why everyone was wearing biohazard masks, to keep this sort of façade up? Percy's mind was buzzing with a hundred questions, but he wasn't about to ask them, since the colonel seemed to be in no mood for answering. And he remembered the first lesson.

 **A/N: And that ends our chapter. One thing I'd like to say, I've mentioned stuff like the Gestapo which don't occur in this timeline, but are there for reference anyway.**

 **Thanks for reading, and I always appreciate reviews. Also, sorry, but an update isn't likely for a while as I will be going on hiatus soon.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: So, we continue with this. Ksoccer16, thanks for the review, I was going to be on hiatus soon but that's been delayed so I'm able to do another chapter before that happens.**

What surprised Percy was just how efficient these guys were.

He had barely exited the colonel's office when someone led him to the back of a military truck, instructed him to get in and closed the door. Percy looked around, the room was very simple, but did have a bathroom and some bottles of water to drink.

The truck went off and Percy sat down, wondering what was going to happen. Percy didn't have a watch, so he didn't know how long it took to reach wherever they were going, a problem compounded by him being ADHD and the wait dragging on the hours in his head.

They came to a stop, and the door opened to reveal a man in a wheelchair in a mud-gray uniform with three stars decorating his shoulder. He looked tired, but at the same time energetic as if he was thinking about battles in his earlier glory days. For the first time since the whole incident, Percy had seen someone who looked friendly.

"Good morning," the man said. "My name is Colonel Brunner, though I suppose you might as well call me Mr. Brunner. I have uh, received the report regarding your situation, and have been instructed to remind you that even so much as hinting that the government report on what happened is wrong will end badly for both you and your mother."

Mr. Brunner then held out a file. Percy opened it, and despite the italicized type which was murder on his dyslexic eyes, he was able to make out what it said. It basically said that there had been a poisonous gas leak at his school, and in it three schoolchildren had perished, as well as a Math teacher named Mrs. Dodds.

Percy gulped. Mrs. Dodds had been the one to cause the problem, and he was even more sure of it now that the State was asking him to hide it, but he wasn't going to say it.

"Can I call my mom?" Percy asked Mr. Brunner. He hadn't bothered asking anyone else since he had the feeling that they might have just tazered him, but the thing was that he was sure that his mother would be worried about him. She might even be wondering if he was dead or not.

Mr. Brunner frowned, but he held up a phone nonetheless. "I don't think it is necessary to remind you that all of your communication will be watched."

Percy nodded, that was one thing that he was sure of. The phone rang a couple of time and his mom answered, but her voice sounded weak, like she had been crying.

"Who is it?"

"It's me, mom," Percy said. Percy's mother gasped and immediately began bombarding him with questions. Was he doing all right? What had happened? Where was he right now? She sounded as if hearing his voice lifted the burden of the world from her shoulders, and Percy tried his best to convince her that he was fine, that everything had happened according to the government reports, and that he was at a military base for training.

"I'm afraid that that is all the time I can give you," Mr. Brunner said. He took the phone "Recruits are usually only given an hour a week to use a phone, so remember that."

After that, two more officers dressed in uniforms that matched Mr. Brunner's came in and gave him everything he needed to start training, which would begin immediately.

Percy stepped outside and took a look to see a huge number of building which all looked identical arranged neatly in rows next to what was huge training ground where he saw what he guessed where recruits running drills. He didn't have much time to take that all in though as he was led to a building into a room which looked like a storage closet and told to wait there.

He wasn't alone. There was another kid wearing the same recruit uniform as Percy right there.

The recruit uniform was a deep shade of blue, which was the only thing that Percy liked about it. It had a bunch of useless buttons and epaulettes that only served to irritate the wearer, a yellow necktie (like seriously, a necktie? What are they thinking? Wouldn't that be a huge liability in case of a fight?), and black shorts that really needed to be longer. Seeing the other guy, Percy realized that he too must have looked like a loser, and his first thought was that anyone wearing something like this at his school would have been beaten up.

The kid in question had black curls and eyes that seemed to make it look like he had just downed three gallons of coffee. He had a mischievous look about him, and Percy thought that it would be a bad idea to give this kid matches. Or anything flammable for that matter.

"Hey there," the guy said. "I'm Valdez, Leo Valdez."

Percy thought that he had heard something like that somewhere, but he couldn't remember where.

"So, you're new here too?" Leo asked without pausing.

"Yeah," Percy said.

"So am I," Leo said. Leo started talking at like thirty miles an hour about himself. As much as Percy could understand, Leo had been part of a science academy for budding engineers before he got kicked out due to some 'incidents' following which he was sent to a military camp, but not this one, another one which was due East of where they were, though he had no idea exactly where it was.

Percy nodded. Even he had never seen a map of the whole country. Geography wasn't a subject in school, but Percy didn't know why the Government wanted to hide how the country looked like from them.

"And then I was kicked out of there too," Leo said. "I mean I had some friends like Jason and Piper, but big whoop I guess, so I'm here now. So anyway, I guess we can be friends, right? Put 'er there."

Leo extended his hand and Percy shook it without thinking about it, and received a mild jolt up his arm as a reward. Percy withdrew his hand to see that Leo was holding what looked like a modified Joy Buzzer.

Leo giggled. "Sorry man, I just couldn't resist."

Right then, a door opened and Leo hid his little device in his pants, and then Percy noticed just how many pockets his uniform had.

A guy on crutches walked in followed by a girl in a recruit uniform. Both of them were talking about something.

"-that's fine and all, but your dad said-" the guy in crutches said.

"I don't care what he said," the girl snapped. "I'm making my own decision and I'm staying here. And tell him if he has any problems he can-"

"Okay, I get it," the boy said sheepishly. "But you know, you could always try to fit in a bit better and at least give him some sort of a chance-"

The girl rolled her eyes and seemed to signal that the conversation was over. She glared at Percy and Leo. Looking at her, Percy though that she looked like someone who would rob people at knifepoint in a dark alleyway as she had modified her uniform, which had several badges and gashes. She glared at the two of them like they were pond scum before leaving.

The guy in with the crutches wasn't wearing a recruit uniform, and had his legs protruding oddly. Percy tried his best not to stare at them in order not to offend him, but of course the more he tried not to the more his eyes wandered right there.

The guy was wearing a small cap and a long, whisky beard as well as a face sprayed with freckles. "Hey guys, I'm Grover. Uhh, that was Thalia, don't really mind her. She's normally in a way better mood, but she just had a big fight with her dad and all. Anyway, as I said, I'm Grover and I mainly help around here. I'm guessing you're Leo Valdez, transferred from our western training camp."

Leo nodded.

"And you must be Percy Jackson then. Umm, from that school with the poisonous gas leak?" Grover asked.

Percy nodded. Leo looked at him as if he had just stepped off from another planet. "Really man? You went to that school with the gas leak? That was all over the news!" He seemed to want to ask a few more questions, but seemed to be waiting for a better time.

Percy had guessed that the school accident would be all over the news. Accidents were rare across Olympus, so they were always big news. Like the subway accident three years ago. Or that fire when Percy had been seven.

But then as Percy realized that there hadn't been any gas leak, it occurred to him that those other accidents might not have been accidents. The soldiers had looked pretty prepared and organized with the whole thing… which meant that stuff like this had happened before.

"Okay, so it is time that I show you around," Grover said.

He led Percy and Leo on a tour of the whole place, from the mess hall to the training ground to the barracks where they would be sleeping. He also drilled them on the ground rules on camp.

"See, the thing is that I'm also your RA," Grover said, "which means that I'll be in your cabin too, so feel free to ask me about anything."

He then began talking about the general coursework. Apparently, they were already four months into the year, so Percy and Leo had some catching up to do. The military preparation was five years training, though most recruits took six or seven years to pass the exams, followed by two years doing low-risk duties after which you were assigned your branch.

Grover looked at his watch. "I think at this point they should be starting fencing soon. Lunch is after that, so I think you guys should just join them in right now."

Grover led them to the training grounds where a group of around sixteen other recruits were there, wielding long wooden practice swords.

"Just follow what your instructors say, and you should be fine," Grover said. "I think I'll leave you two here."

There was a box of more wooden swords, so Percy and Leo each grabbed one.

"So, you're from that school right? The one with the poisonous gas stuff? How was it like?" Leo asked excitedly, as if being in a school with a lethal gas leak was one of the coolest things in the world.

"Uhh…" Percy wasn't sure what to say, since there had been no real leak and he wasn't sure about telling the truth since he assumed their could be bugs hidden very easily in his uniform, so he instead changed the topic. "Do we really have to learn fencing?"

Leo stared at the sword. "Yeah, I guess so. I mean, all it had been back there were sit-ups and stuff. I thought we would be using cool stuff now, like guns or grenades."

Percy was of the opinion that giving a grenade to Leo was not the brightest idea in the world, but he still couldn't figure out why fencing was important. He had never seen any of the variety of officers using them, though with a jolt he remembered that one of the Internal Affairs Squad people had been carrying a sword with a glowing blade.

There wasn't much more time for more conversation as three people walked up to them. One was a girl with blonde hair and grey, stormy eyes. Another was a boy with blonde hair and wielding a practice sword too. One was the girl Leo and Percy had seen earlier.

"Hello," the boy said. "My name is Luke Castellan, and I will be your main sword instructor. These are my assistants-" the two girls glared at him as he said this "Annabeth Chase and Thalia Grace. First I say we should start with a practice move. I'll need a volunteer."

Percy kept thinking, Don't pick me!, over and over again, so naturally Luke looked at him and asked him to walk up in front. The other kids looked at him sympathetically.

Luke showed them a move that was made to disarm your opponent slowly, and then wanted Percy to use it on him.

Percy held up his practice sword unsteadily. The two began exchanging blows and Percy felt slightly better after that. He saw an opening, and without thinking much about it, did the same move he had seen earlier and disarmed Luke.

There was stunned silence. Luke, however, grinned. "Let's try that again." This time though, Luke beat Percy easily.

"Beginner's luck?" Thalia said.

"Maybe," Luke said. "Alright, everyone split into three groups and we're going to run out some more drills."

Leo jogged up to Percy. "How did you do that?"

"I don't know."

"Last person I saw do something like that was Jason. That said, do you think I have a shot with Thalia?"

"Wait, what?" Percy asked. Leo grinned.

"You may not have noticed this," Leo said, "but I have a very smooth system. They used to call me 'Leo Lady Killer' back at the old camp."

"I don't believe that," Percy said.

"Whatever," Leo said, apparently unfazed as he marched off to practice with Thalia. Percy wondered just how many bruises he was going to get.

Percy continued drilling with Luke though, who after a while suggested that they stopped.

"So," Luke asked while taking a sip from a small bottle, "where are you from?"

"The school with the gas leak," Percy said.

Luke frowned. "Saw that on the news."

"Uh-huh," Percy said, wondering how many times he was going to be asked that question.

Luke glanced around. "It looks like your friend is taking a beating."

Indeed, Percy saw that Thalia was not a gentle teacher. Even Percy had gotten some whacks from Luke, but Leo seemed to be faring worse since he seemed to be bad at the whole thing as well.

"Thalia seems to be in a bad mood today," Luke noted. "I think her dad has been pushing her more lately." Luke glanced at Percy. "Don't think too bad of her, her mother died not too long ago, and her father had never really married her mother."

The same thing was true for Percy, so he nodded.

"That's actually something quite common here," Luke said. "So anyway, her father's some big-shot in the government, apparently he's called Zeus, and he doesn't want her in the military."

"Zeus?" Percy asked. He tried racking his brains for the name of someone like that who he might have seen on television on King Ares's cabinet or the Senate, but couldn't remember someone named like that. Anyway, he had a tendency to call them things like 'the guy who looks like a penguin' or 'the woman whose teeth are too big for her mouth' in his head so he didn't remember names that well anyway. "I've never heard of him."

"Me neither," Luke said. "But apparently he's important somehow."

Just then, the bell rang. Luke grabbed a megaphone. "Thanks guys. That will be all for today. It is now time for lunch, so please proceed to the mess hall in an orderly fashion. Also, THE COW GOES MOO- what?" Luke frowned and checked the megaphone. That was odd, and Leo seemed to be the one laughing the hardest.

"Anyway," Luke said on the megaphone. "We'll be meeting again every other day from now on."

And so, the recruits made a neat line and headed towards the mess hall.

 **A/N: And that ends it. I know some of you might have some questions like: Are they demigods? Why isn't Zeus king? Are they immortal?**

 **Well, those are part of the mystery but if you have any other questions I'll be willing to answer them. Thank you for reading and I appreciate reviews. However, it might take some time for the next chapter as I might be going on hiatus any day now for a few weeks.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: So, ksoccer16, thanks for the review, and the hiatus is over. For now.**

Percy followed the line to the mess hall.

The recruits were orderly all up to the hall, marching in step which Percy found difficult to keep up with.

"So, Percy," Leo said. "You're still not mad about the whole joy buzzer thing, are you?"

"Wha-nah," Percy answered. He personally thought it wasn't that bad of a prank. "We're cool."

Leo sighed with relief.

"But I wanted to ask you about something," Percy said. He lowered his voice to a whisper. "How small can you make spy cameras.. and you know, bugs?

Leo made a joke about bugs but seemed to forget how it was supposed to end in-between, which was when he answered properly. "Pretty small. There was this huge course back at where I was studying engineering. I mean, I wasn't paying attention to much of it, but I remember seeing on you'd need a magnifying glass to spot. There were even some so tiny the only way to spot them was if you had a proper detector."

Percy nodded. How easy would it have been for the State to plant a microphone under his collar? Or under everyone's collar for that matter?

That also mad ePercy wonder how Ares got to monitor everything. He must have had some sort of small army to go through all the letters and footage that the State got everyday. And who would monitor the monitor's activities?

Percy had no more time to ponder these philosophical questions though, as they had reached what he guessed was their table.

All around him, Percy saw other recruits. They seemed to be much more relaxed than outside, though they were still better behaved than the kids at this old school cafeteria. Percy saw kids laughing and talking like they were actually enjoying themselves.

Percy sat down at the end of the table. He guessed his section had to sit together, it was nice to he wouldn't be sitting all alone like at school.

Then again, he was also being forced to sit at the extreme end of the table, either because no on wanted to sit next to him or because they were supposed to sit in order of precedence or joining.

Grover joined them opposite to Percy. He then began dispatching recruits in groups of five to go and actually get their lunches.

Percy had assumed that the food for the recruits would be just the bare necessities for living. But, it actually looked pretty good.

This either meant that the army took good care of its recruits, or that Percy _had_ been given only the bare necessities at home.

Percy an Leo were sent out in the last batch and Grover came after them. Percy was surprised at how fast Grover moved. "Cheese enchiladas today... finally!"

Only thing was that the last one was given to Percy, so Grover was left empty-handed.

Back at the table, the other recruits were talking or eating.

Grover looked really hardcore depressed though, as if missing a cheese enchilada had been like missing a part of his soul.

Percy cut off half of his own and put it in Grover's plate before he could protest. Leo did the same.

Grover almost had tears in his eyes, as if being given cheese enchiladas meant they were now all BFFs.

Another recruit also did the same, but with his whole thing instead of just half. "You can have mine too, I'm lactose intolerant anyway."

"Lactose intolerant?" Leo asked.

"Yeah, I'm Frank by the way," Frank said.

"I'm Leo," Leo said, trying to sound as friendly as possible. "Put 'er there," he added as he held up his hand.

Frank hesitantly shook it, and it was when he withdrew his hand in shock that Percy realized what had happened.

Leo grinned. "Sorry, couldn't help it."

Frank looked like he wanted to smack Leo upside the head, but at that moment Grover had chosen to look up from his food so Frank seemed to suppress his urge.

Percy looked around, and saw that all the tables seemed to be arranged in identical order. There was always someone like Grover, who he guessed were the RAs at the corner, but all of them seemed to be on crutches for some reason.

Glancing at Frank though, he noticed something. All the other recruits seemed to be wearing their uniforms wrong, Percy included. THey had all gotten their ties on wrong, or messed up a button or two, but Frank looked immaculate. His uniform also seemed to _glow_ somehow.

"Dude, how does your uniform look so... spectacular?" Percy asked, saying spectacular for lack of a better word, though he knew it sounded lame.

Frank blushed. "it's nothing... I just try extra hard. I want to get into Internal Affairs."

"You mean those psychos who work under Hecate?" Leo asked. Leo seemed to behave been more busy playing with his food than eating it and had been making something like a catapult out of his spoon and a rubber band.

"Yeah," Franks said, "but they're not really psychos.. I mean they might be, but they can't all be that bad. I mean, they're the hardest to get into."

Percy was surprised. "You mean we get to choose where we go?"

Frank looked surprised that Percy didn't know that. "Yeah, there's the IA Squad at the top, but they only take the top five or ten best a year."

Percy looked around him. There must have been over two hundred kids there. The top five or ten sounded impressive. Did it really take that much skill to join those people?

"So they're led by Hecate," Frank added after taking a spoon of mashed potatoes. "Then there's the Secret Service, serving as King Ares's bodyguards. Then there's the Pegasus Knights, the Civilian Police, Border Control, and the Navy."

"So you really want to get into the IA Squad?" Percy asked.

Frank nodded. "Yeah, my mom wanted to get in but missed the cut by the skin of her teeth." THere was an unusual steel in his voice as he talked about her. "So, I was sent to sort of regain the family honor and all."

"Wait, you _wanted_ to come here?" Percy asked.

"Yeah... why?"

Percy glanced around. He had assumed initially that everyone there was there as a punishment but seeing the other kids laughing... they seemed to want to be there.

His rumination was interrupted by the fact that Leo had accidentally launched some mashed potatoes, where they sailed in a beautiful arc and hit a recruit squarely on the back of his head.

The recruit turned and glared at leo, who was trying to but on a poker face but failing badly at it.

"Food fight!" the recruit shouted and flung a cheese enchilada right at Leo.

 **A/N: And that ends it. Thanks for reading, and I know I mixed up some of the characters from the camps, but this is AU, so I guess that's okay.**


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